Florence May

Born in 1845, Florence May built a life in music as a pianist, composer, and writer. She became especially known for her close connection to the German musical world of the 19th century and for writing about it with unusual firsthand insight.

She studied with Johannes Brahms and later drew on that experience in her writing, which gave readers a rare sense of how great musicians actually taught, played, and thought. Her best-known books include The Girlhood of Clara Schumann and The Life of Johannes Brahms, works that helped preserve personal and artistic details that might otherwise have been lost.

May died in 1923, but her writing still matters to readers interested in music history because it combines biography with lived experience. Rather than standing at a distance, she wrote as someone who had listened closely, learned directly, and wanted to share that world with others.